Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District’s new Pierce aerial fire engine arrived last week and should be in service after training for department personnel is complete and the vehicle is fully equipped.
The fire engine can pump 2,000 gallons per minute and sports a 500-gallon tank, Fire Chief Mike Beaver said. It carries a huge complement of ground ladders and other standard equipment.
“The big feature on this is the aerial capacity that this department has never had,” Beaver said. The engine carries a 105-foot ladder, and it provides a variety of uses for firefighters.
It can provide an “elevated water stream on large fires,” Beaver said. In the past, Sweet Home has had to wait for Lebanon Fire District to arrive on scene in Sweet Home before making serious headway against large fires.
When an apartment complex in Foster burned, firefighters didn’t really extinguish it before Lebanon’s aerial arrived, Beaver said. Once the aerial arrived, the firefighters were able to save half of the structure.
Now, Sweet Home won’t have to wait for an aerial to arrive when it’s needed, he said.
Firefighters also can work from the ladder above roofs that are weakened by fires, Beaver said.
In a recent house fire, firefighters tentatively climbed onto the roof to vent the fire, but they were unable to stay on the unstable roof.
With the ladder, they will be able to work above some of these roofs, he said.
The truck also can be used for rescue, Beaver said. The ladder can reach second-story, third-story and higher windows to provide escape routes for residents and firefighters trapped in multi-story buildings.
This is important at Wiley Creek Community, for example, Beaver said, but it’s also important at more and more homes.
Many new single-family residences are 30 to 35 feet tall, he said. Before the new aerial, the department’s options were to put 32-foot ladders up against these homes.
“This is just a great addition to the city of Sweet Home,” Beaver said, and also to Linn County and its other departments.
Albany has two aerial engines, and Lebanon has one, he said. This truck adds a fourth to the county.
Normally, the aerial will respond as the second engine out on in-town fires, Beaver said. On rural fires, the incident commander will be able to call for it if the engine can get there.
It definitely has access issues, Beaver said. It’s 15 feet longer than the department’s regular fire engines.
“We’ve already started training on this thing,” Beaver said. The department held an eight-hour class in April. Pierce is going to provide three days of training in July, and firefighters also will get additional local training.
The training is necessary because the department has no piece of gear like this one, Beaver said. It’s 40 feet long and 11 feet 4 inches high. It weighs 70,800 pounds. It carries six people.
The district does have several firefighters who are already trained on such engines, either currently working or having worked at departments that have them.
It will be mid-July at least before the district begins using the aerial, Beaver said. By then the district will have 23 people trained to operate it.
The aerial was purchased through a $1.8 million bond levy approved last year by Sweet Home area voters to purchase four pieces of apparatus.
The engine cost approximately $683,000.
The fire district has two new regular engines ordered, Beaver said. Those will be available in November or December. They will cost around $325,000 to $330,000 each.
A water tender has not been ordered yet, Beaver said. Another area department is having a couple of tenders built locally and Sweet Home is waiting to see how those work out before ordering, Beaver said.
“I think it’s going to be at a really good price.”